Deer Park residents decry possible loss of Strike 10 Lanes bowling alley

Deer Park residents are rallying against the possible closure of a bowling alley hailed as a “symbol of community” as the property owner seeks to turn the site into a storage facility.

LAG Associates LLC has applied to the Town of Babylon for the more than 58,000-square-foot lot on Long Island Avenue between Irving and Eastwood avenues to be rezoned from business and residence to industry. The company, which a town spokesman said is headed by Joseph Giaquinto, is seeking to build a two-story, 17,000-square-foot self-storage facility on the site.

The spot is currently the home for Strike 10 Lanes, a building that has been used as a bowling alley since 1959, according to town records.

At a public hearing before the town planning board last week, Nicole Blanda, an attorney for LAG Associates, told the board that the company has been in talks with Public Storage to operate there.

“For a company like Public Storage to even be interested in a site like this, they had to have done a market study that told them that they believe this would be a viable and profitable site for them,” she said.

While concerns about traffic and landscaping usually dominate rezoning hearings, many of those who spoke last week said they were most upset at the loss of the bowling alley.

Priscilla Zárate, of Deer Park, chairwoman of Suffolk County’s Hispanic Advisory Board, called the bowling alley a “long-lasting symbol of community connection” that could not be replaced by a storage facility.

“Storage units do not build community,” she said. “They don’t host youth leagues. They don’t bring families together for birthday parties or school outings. They don’t offer teenagers a safe place to laugh and to grow and to just be kids ...”

Giaquinto did not respond to requests for comment.

Many at the hearing and in interviews with Newsday identified Lou Seda as the owner of Strike 10 Lanes, who leases the building from Giaquinto. They said Seda has been generous with youth bowling teams, providing discounted games and a place for them to store equipment, and that he does not want to close the business. Seda declined to comment to Newsday.

Parents spoke of the importance of the alley to area youth, including many special needs kids who play there as part of several school districts’ Unified teams that combine general population and special education students. Parents implored the board to reject the rezoning to save the bowling alley.

“These children do not have much, but this bowling alley is their safe haven,” said Kristin Howe, whose son has played on a Unified team for two years. “Please do not take this bowling alley away from them. This is all they have.”

The alley serves not only Babylon Town youth but other school districts as well, including Brentwood. Recent Brentwood High School graduates Naomi Rhoden and Maljorin Hernandez lobbied the board to reject the rezoning, with Rhoden calling the alley her “home away from home.”

Bowling coaches who use the Deer Park facility said when a bowling alley shuts, it can be hard for parents to take their kids farther away for practices and games, and high school teams start getting cut.

“We have bowling alleys closing all over the place and once they’re gone, no one is building any,” John Romero, bowling coach for the Comsewogue boys varsity team, told Newsday. “I don’t like the idea of bowling alleys closing at all, but on top of that, you’re going to do it for a storage facility? Really?”

Sonny Casale, coach for the North Babylon varsity boys team as well as North Babylon’s Unified team, said the alleys that are left are often full and some won’t take on unified teams, so special needs players are most vulnerable.

“I am very worried,” he said, noting that a bowling alley in East Islip also is poised to close. “It will be tough when East Islip closes. It’s going to be impossible if Deer Park closes, especially for the Unified kids.”

Blanda said at the close of the hearing that “there’s no simple answer” on the site’s future but that they would “take into account” everything that residents said and have a discussion.